Congress Promises Legal Guarantee for Minimum Support Price for Farmers

The Congress yesterday promised legal guarantee for the Minimum Support Price for various crops, which is the long pending demand of the farmers from across the country.

Addressing a largely attended public rally on the thirty-first day of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra here today, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former president Rahul Gandhi announced that once the Indian National Democratic Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) government is formed at the centre, law will be enacted to provide legal guarantee for the MSP on various crops.

Supporting the agitation of the farmers, who are marching towards Delhi to press for the implementation of the promises made to them, the Congress president condemned the attempts of the government of India to block their way to the national capital.

Kharge said that not only will there be the legal guarantee for the MSP, other problems faced by the farmers will also be resolved. He said, the Congress had always watched and safeguarded the interests of the farmers and pointed out, during ten years of the UPA rule at the centre, Rs 72,000 crores worth of farmers’ debt was waived off. He said, Modi has not waived off a single penny.

Referring to the Bharat Ratna award to late MS Swaminathan, the Congress president said, his party welcomed it, and asked the Prime Minister to implement his (Swaminathan’s) recommendations also for determining the MSP for various crops.

Taking a jibe at the Prime Minister for his media campaign of “Modi guarantee”, he asked, what happened to the old guarantees like doubling the income of farmers, providing two crore jobs every year or depositing Rs 15 lakhs each in every Indian’s bank account. He said, that is why he has been saying that Modi was the “master of liars”.

Speaking on the occasion, Rahul Gandhi said that the Congress was committed to providing legal guarantee for the MSP, which is a long pending demand of the farmers.

He said the farmers were not getting their due and proper price for the crops they produced. He said, the INDIA government will ensure legal guarantee for the MSP and also its implementation in accordance with the recommendations of late MS Swaminathan. He had recommended that the MSP be fixed on the basis of the input costs of the crop produce.

Spelling out his mission in the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra, he said, there was grave social and economic injustice prevailing in the country. He observed that 73 percent of the country’s population representing the OBCs, the Dalits and the Adivasis was poorly or negligibly represented in every sector.

Quoting the examples of 'Corporate India', private hospitals, media houses, judiciary, he said, they had either zero representation or negligible representation in these sectors. He said, even in the government of India, despite constituting 73 percent of the country’s population, their representation and participation in important decision making processes was hardly five or six percent.

The former Congress president argued, that is why he was emphasising on the need for carrying out caste census in the country. He said, it will be a revolutionary measure like the Green Revolution, the White Revolution, the Bank Nationalisation and Computer Revolution.

He said, not only will the caste census reveal the exact number of people belonging to each caste, but also who controls how much wealth and resources in the country.

He alleged that it was barely one percent of the country's population that controlled almost the entire wealth and resources of the country and the caste census will identify all those people.

Among those present on the occasion included Congress general secretary in charge organization KC Venugopal, general secretary in charge communication Jairam Ramesh, party in charge for Chhattisgarh Sachin Pilot, former Chief Minister Bhupesh Bhagel, former Deputy Chief Minister TS Singh Deo, PCC president Deepak Baij, CLP leader CD Mahant and others.